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Brown Pelican Flies High Again

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 21, 2008

The brown pelican is about to lose its status as an endangered species - good news for the majestic coastal bird and the much-maligned law that saved it.

More than 30 years ago, the pelican was nearing extinction because of pesticides that accumulated in its food supply, causing its eggs to be exceedingly fragile.

The pelican virtually disappeared in Louisiana and Texas, and became scarce in Florida and other Gulf of Mexico states.

But the bird - which plunges into the water after fish, its lower bill expanding into a trap - was rescued by the Endangered Species Act. Soon after it was declared an endangered species in 1970, DDT and other harmful pesticides were banned.

The pelican population quickly began to recover. By 1985, it had been taken off the endangered list in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Atlantic Coast. Now it's about to be "delisted" in Louisiana, the Pacific Coast, the Caribbean and Latin America.

More than 620,000 pelicans now live along the Gulf.

Critics disparage the Endangered Species Act as being overly burdensome, even though its protections are modest.

Regularly seeing the high-diving bird along the coast is an achievement we should all applaud.

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